Carvoeiro in December: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and Prices

CARVOEIRO · DECEMBER · THE ALGARVE

December hands Carvoeiro back to the people who live there. The cliffs above Praia do Carvoeiro are exactly as photogenic, the boardwalk east toward Algar Seco stays open, and the thermometer at Faro reads an average high of 62.8°F for the month. What changes is the light: 9 hours 41 minutes of it on December 15, with the sun down at 5:17 p.m. local time.

That short day is the trade. You get a coastline without queues and a village you can park in, in exchange for 3.54 inches of rain across seven wet days and a sea sitting at 63.4°F. Walkers come out ahead on that deal. Swimmers, for the most part, do not.

On this page

• December highs, lows and rain days62.8°F days, 7.0 wet days
• Can you swim in Carvoeiro in December?A 63.4°F sea, and what that means
• Crowds, prices and when to bookWhere December sits in the year
• Things to do in DecemberAlgar Seco, the boardwalk, Benagil
• A two-day plan for short daylightHour by hour, sunrise to 5:17 p.m.
• December vs November and JanuaryHow the three months compare
• Is December a good time to visit?Our verdict, for walkers and for swimmers

Everything below is dated to the month. For the village itself, the beaches and the year-round practicalities, our Carvoeiro guide does that job, and the Algarve page puts the coast in order.

Carvoeiro weather in December: average highs, lows and rain days

Every figure here comes from IPMA, the Portuguese national weather service, and specifically from its 1991-2020 normals for station 554 at Faro, a real thermometer 5.0 m above sea level rather than a model grid cell. December there averages a high of 62.8°F and a low of 49.5°F, with 3.54 inches of rain. Faro sits east of Carvoeiro, and the western half of this coast runs cooler and windier than the station reads. Go inland or uphill and the gap widens again: colder, and far wetter. Pack for a coastal reading, not for a mountain trail.

Seven days in an average December record at least 1 mm of rain (0.04 inch), and 3.2 of them drop 10 mm (0.39 inch) or more. Those are IPMA’s thresholds, not the 0.10-inch bar most US tables use, so the two counts do not swap. Read it as measurable rain roughly one day in four, with about three days heavy enough to cancel a cliff walk and send you to Faro or Lagos instead. The other twenty-four days of the month come dry.

The spread between 62.8°F and 49.5°F is 13.3 degrees, and it lands on your evening rather than your afternoon. A fleece or a light down layer over a shirt covers the whole month at sea level, and a windproof shell does more work on the clifftops than a thick coat. Rain gear belongs in the bag for one day in four. Our packing guide has the full winter list.

On December 15 the sun comes up at 7:36 a.m. and goes down at 5:17 p.m. local time, Portugal staying on UTC through the winter, for 9 hours 41 minutes of daylight. The usable light on the cliffs is finished before six. Anything that needs daylight, a boat trip, the run down to Sagres, a long stretch of coast path, has to start in the morning. That constraint shapes a December itinerary more than the rain does.

Can you swim in Carvoeiro in December? Sea temperature and what it feels like

Open-Meteo’s marine model puts the sea surface off Carvoeiro at 63.4°F in December, averaged over 2015-2024. One caveat travels with that number: it is the mean of daily maxima, the warmest reading of each day, so it sits a shade above what a straight 24-hour mean would give. Sea-temperature tables built on 24-hour means will show you a slightly cooler figure for the same water, and neither version is wrong.

In the water, 63.4°F is cold-water swimming. Without neoprene most people manage a few minutes, and the gasp on entry is the real obstacle rather than the cold that follows. A wetsuit turns the same dip into an actual session, and the local surf crowd treats the month as ordinary. Children and anyone who feels the cold will end up at the pool, so ask your hotel whether theirs is heated before you book the room.

We could not verify December wind speeds or swell heights for this stretch of coast, so we quote none. What our climate source does flag is directional: the western Algarve runs windier than the Faro station reads, and Carvoeiro lies west of it. Atlantic swell is what closes the small coves to boats in winter. If a cave trip matters to you, put it early in the stay so a weather cancellation has a spare day behind it.

How busy is Carvoeiro in December? Crowds, prices and booking

December sits well outside the Algarve’s summer season, and that much is calendar rather than opinion. Past that we found no monthly occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Carvoeiro, so we crown no month the cheapest and quote no nightly figure. The structural point still holds: a resort village runs its full roster in July and a reduced one in December. Confirm by email that your hotel, and the restaurant you had in mind, is open for your dates.

Booking lead times are not something we could verify either, so take the next lines as our judgment rather than measurement. The stretch from a few days before Christmas into the first days of January carries holiday demand, and flights from the US into Lisbon or Faro airport feel that fortnight the way every other route does, as our flights guide explains. Outside those two weeks, December dates tend to come together late, rental car included.

We could not verify a tourist-tax rate for Carvoeiro or its municipality, so we give no percentage and no per-night amount. Portuguese municipalities set these locally, and some charge nothing at all, which is why the fee line on your own booking is the only figure worth trusting. The paperwork side lives in our know-before-you-go guide, and the wider budget in what a Portugal trip costs.

The one line to pay up on is the rental car. With 9 hours 41 minutes of daylight, a bus timetable eats the part of the day you came for, and the coast either side of the village, Benagil to the east, Lagos and Ponta da Piedade to the west, is a series of short drives. Our car-rental guide handles tolls and insurance. A car also turns a 5:17 p.m. sunset into dinner somewhere else rather than an evening indoors.

Things to do in Carvoeiro in December: Algar Seco, the boardwalk and Benagil

December is the month to walk these cliffs without rationing water. At 62.8°F, the path east from the village and the longer coast walk toward Benagil are comfortable in a fleece at midday, which July does not allow at any hour. The staircase down to the beach is empty, the one-way lanes above the harbor are parkable, and the low-sun photographs arrive at four in the afternoon instead of at dawn.

Named targets, with what we could and could not check. Algar Seco’s rock arches and the boardwalk above them sit just east of Praia do Carvoeiro and cost nothing to walk. Benagil and its sea cave lie a short drive east, reachable only from the water. Ponta da Piedade and Lagos anchor the western half of the coast, and Faro‘s old town is the wet-weather fallback.

The water at these places barely notices the calendar: 65.3°F in November, 63.4°F in December, 62.0°F in January, a swing of 3.3 degrees across the whole run. The air is what moves, and so is the company. A cave that needs a boat and a calm morning is a summer certainty and a December lottery. A clifftop that is punishing at two in the afternoon in August is exactly right at two in the afternoon now.

The free half of the month is the good half. Cliff paths, the Algar Seco walkways, the beach and the harbor wall cost nothing in any season, and in December they cost nothing in queuing either. Winter parking charges in the village we could not verify, so budget as though the summer arrangement still applies and be pleased if it does not.

Carvoeiro in December: a two-day itinerary

Day one keys to a 7:36 a.m. sunrise and a 5:17 p.m. sunset. Coffee in the village at eight, on the boardwalk by nine while the sun is still low over Algar Seco, back down for an early lunch at one. The afternoon goes to the drive east toward Benagil and the clifftop viewpoints above the cave, and you want a westward view by a quarter past four. Dinner starts early in a winter village, so call the restaurant ahead rather than wandering at nine.

Day two depends on the sky. Dry, take the coast path west and give the afternoon to Lagos, with Ponta da Piedade at the edge of town. Wet, and on a week’s stay you should expect it once or twice, drive to Faro for the old town and the indoor hours, or to Albufeira for a covered lunch and a shorter return leg. Either way the light goes at 5:17 p.m. and the drive home is a night drive.

Carvoeiro in December vs November and January

Across the three months the afternoons move less than most visitors expect: 67.3°F in November, 62.8°F in December, 61.3°F in January. Nights drop faster, 53.4 to 49.5 to 46.9. Rain is where December stands apart, at 3.54 inches over 7.0 wet days against November’s 2.97 and January’s 1.94. The sea, from the marine model rather than the weather station, slides 65.3, 63.4 and 62.0 across the same run.

Shift four weeks back and you buy 4.5 degrees on the afternoon and 1.9 on the sea, and you give up the year-end dates themselves, which for many readers are the only dates available. Shift four weeks forward and January hands you the driest of the three at 1.94 inches, in exchange for 46.9°F nights and a 62.0°F sea. The same figures run at full length on our November page and January page.

Is December a good time to visit Carvoeiro?

Yes, if you walk. This is a cliff-path month with 62.8°F afternoons, a village you can park in, and roughly twenty-four dry days in thirty-one to plan around. No, if the trip is built on beach time or on swimming with children. A 63.4°F sea and a 5:17 p.m. sunset make for a short beach day even when the sun holds, and no amount of good luck with the weather changes the length of the afternoon.

If the answer is no, move to November rather than January. November runs 4.5 degrees warmer by day, keeps the sea at 65.3°F, still sits outside the summer season, and gives you longer afternoons on the same cliffs. January is drier at 1.94 inches but colder at every hour, so it suits a walking trip better than a beach one. Our best-time-to-visit guide lays out the other nine.

December’s own offer is narrow and real: it is the only one of these three months that carries the year-end break, so the dates are chosen for you and the weather still delivers 62.8°F on the clifftop.

The last word

Book the car, keep the boat trip loose, and put your two big walks in the first half of the stay so the weather gets a second chance at them. One figure we have kept back: the sea off Carvoeiro averages 63.4°F this month against an average afternoon air temperature of 62.8°F, so on a still day the water is the warmer half of the picture. That does not make it a swim. It does mean the wind decides your lunch, so bring the shell that blocks it.

Sources & data for this guide

• December air normals (62.8°F / 49.5°F, 3.54 in) · IPMA, 1991-2020 normals, station 554 Faro, altitude 5.0 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Rain-day counts (7.0 days at 1 mm or more, 3.2 days at 10 mm or more) · IPMA thresholds, not the 0.10-inch bar used by US tables · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Scope caveat: the station sits at Faro, east of Carvoeiro; the western Algarve runs cooler and windier, and high ground is colder and wetter · IPMA · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Sea surface 63.4°F, mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Daylight 9h 41m, sunrise 7:36 and sunset 17:17 UTC on December 15, given in local time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 23, 2026
• November and January figures (air from IPMA 1991-2020; sea from Open-Meteo Marine API 2015-2024) · checked Sep 23, 2026
• We found no monthly occupancy or room-rate series for Carvoeiro, so we rank no month by price. We could not verify a tourist-tax rate, December boat schedules and fares, winter parking charges, or December wind and swell statistics, so we give no figures for them.
• Places, walks and the two-day plan are editorial; opening hours and boat operations change in winter · check operators when you book.

To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Carvoeiro: Sea Temperatures, Rain Days and the Quiet Months
• Carvoeiro in January: Weather, Sea Temperature, Rain Days and Crowds
• Carvoeiro in November: Weather, Sea Temperature, Rain Days and What It Costs You
• Carvoeiro in February: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and How It Compares to January and March

Nearby places

• Albufeira, Portugal: The Three Zones, the Beaches and the Old Town Hill
• The Algarve: Beaches, Towns and the Two Coasts of Portugal's South
• Faro, Portugal: The Old Town, the Lagoon Boats and the Airport Night